Track team aims to start on right note

March 31, 2006|RUSTY NIXON Tribune Correspondent

PLYMOUTH -- If you see the members of Plymouth High School's track team listening to their iPods while running, they just might be tuned into themselves. Senior leaders Kenrick Mills, Michael Brady, Neal Compton, Israel Vargas, Matt King and Tim Likens have been making music -- a lot of music. "I got my first drum set in fifth grade; I've been playing ever since," said Brady. "About the eighth grade, I stole my brother's guitar, so I'm sort of self-taught." "Lessons are for losers," said Mills, to which the others agreed, laughing. Mills himself, of course, is self-taught. "I've been playing for three years now." For Vargas, music is a family affair. His father is a musician with a band of his own. "I'm more of a lyricist," Israel said. "My dad's played music all his life. Sometimes I go along with him to play with his friends. We do some rock, some Spanish music. "I'd be interested in doing it for a living someday. I don't know if I'm good enough." King, another guitarist, said his interest in music "just kind of happened." Likens, president of the school band, had a much more practical reason for his musical choice. "In sixth grade, you had to make a choice between band and choir," he said. "I really hated to sing, so it was pretty obvious for me." Compton, although not as musically inclined as the others, will show off some rhythm in the spring play this year, his first time onstage at PHS. He's also had an interesting life of his own. He spent five years living in England. "My dad was a business manager for a company over there, so I went with him," he said. "We lived in Corby. It was really kind of the middle of nowhere." The track season is run in the early spring when the weather is cold and usually wet. Running outside is really the furthest thing from a high school senior's mind. What, besides music, keeps this bunch moving? "I personally have a goal to get to the state in the 4-by-400," said King. Compton has a personal goal as well. "This is my first year on the track team," he said. "I really don't want to be remembered as a quitter -- even though I'm probably the slowest guy out here." "When you've been out for four years," said Vargas, "it would be an awful waste of all that time and effort if you don't finish it out as strong as you can." One motivation they all agreed on, that they say applies to music as well: "You do it for the girls." Other members of the 2006 boys track team are freshmen Calvin Cook, Kent Corsbie, Alex Eads, Declan Fox, Austin Hodges, Andrew Kurtz, Taylor Milliser, Adam Read, Andy Sanchez, Sam Tomasik and Tom Young; sophomores Jacob Costilla, Mitch Glassburn, Peter Johnson, Seth Siders and Bryce Westfall; juniors Kenny Bachtel, David Burroughs, David Caldwell, Dave Christiansen, Larry Eddington, Brendan Fox, Michael Hooker, Travis Loving, Alex Morris, Daniel Neidlinger, Jacob Palmer, Alex Quintana, David Read, Nick Rice, Kane Smith, Matt Wentz and Josh Woods.